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Refugee Assistance

The Refugee Assistance Program is a federally funded program which helps persons admitted into the U.S. as refugees to become self-sufficient after their arrival. Temporary refugee cash assistance and refugee medical assistance is available to eligible refugees who do not qualify for cash assistance (through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program), Supplemental Security Income or Medicaid.

Refugee cash and medical assistance is available for up to eight months after entry into the U.S. Employment services, health screenings and foster care services for unaccompanied minors are other programs available to refugees.

Eligibility for refugee cash and medical assistance is available for up to eight months after entry into the U.S., or date asylum was granted, if you have one of the following immigration statuses:

Refugee or Asylee.

Cuban/Haitian entrant.

Amerasian.

Parolee.

Victim of trafficking.

Iraqi or Afghan Special Immigrant VISA (SIV) holders.

U-Visa holders.

Immigration status is determined by officials from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Eligibility

Asset Limits

Income

Residency Requirements

The cash asset limit is $3,000. Assets are cash or any property you own.

Cash assets include:

Cash on hand

Bank and credit union accounts

Investments

Retirement plans

Trusts

Property or real estate (asset limit is $250,000)

Assets such as your vehicles and personal belongings are not counted.

Most earned and unearned income is counted. Income is considered when determining the amount of assistance you are eligible for.

Examples of countable income are:

Wages

Self-employment earnings

Rental income

Child support

Social Security benefits

Veterans benefits

The following residency requirements apply:

Must live in Michigan

Must not be receiving cash assistance from any other state.

Other Refugee Assistance & Services

We partner with a number of refugee resettlement agencies that provide additional services to refugees such as resettlement, employment, health care and maintenance, mentoring, foster care, and education.
Refugees who receive Matching Grant benefits are not eligible for refugee cash assistance for the same period.

Employment Services

Services are available to address barriers to employment such as social adjustment, transportation, interpretation, day care for children, citizenship and naturalization. These agencies also serve refugee cash assistant clients in meeting their required employment participation.

The program seeks to decrease older refugee isolation and dependence and to overcome cultural, language and educational barriers. The goal is to increase the number of older refugees using mainstream services and to connect with other older refugees who share common backgrounds, difficulties and barriers when coming to a new country.

We partner with local health departments and clinics in each of the seven major geographic resettlement areas of the state to provide health screenings to newly arriving refugees on a per capita basis.